6. SS-Sturmbrigade Langemarck StuG III ausf. G - Ukraine 1944

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Hi,

This is my first thread here since I joined today. One of my projects is a scene depicting a StuG III of the Flemings of the Langemarck near Zhitomir, Ukraine during the final stages of WWII. It's a project going on and off for well over 2 years (I'm a rather slow modeller) and I tried several new things like sculpting figures and constructing a house.
566718.jpg

First an introduction:

During WWII lots of Belgian volunteers served within German Heer and SS units. Percentage wise, of all the conquered nations, we delivered most of the volunteers for the German cause in the East. These young idealists wheren't generally speaking all nazi's or even antisemites. Most of them signed up to fight against the threat of Bolsjewism. In many villages the Catholic priest preached against communism and rallied the young men to sign up.

Also, after WWI there were some harsh feelings towards the French speaking elite in Belgium. During WWI many Flemish men, fighting in the Belgian Army were commanded by French speaking officers who didn't speak Flemish. This caused a lot of difficulties during and after the War. Separatist movements rised after the war and these movements would form a firm base for the later Flemish Volunteers during WWII.

When Germany invaded Belgium, these movements saw their chances to try to dismantle Belgium and continue with Flanders as a separate region. The Germans made good use of this making false promises.

Anywhoo, many young Flemish volunteered and were divided in the newly formed NordWest Division, a mixed division consisting out of Flemish, Dutch and Danish men. But, with so many volunteers out of these countries, the NordWest was soon split up in different Legions: the Legion Niederlände, the Freiwillen Legion Flandern etc. However, some of them served in other Waffen-SS units as well, like the Leibstandarte, Das Reich and Wiking.
Generally these men were amongst the finest and soon received lots of credit for their bravery on the Eastern Front. Many casualties were sustained. Since the Flemish were to be considered as 'Germanic' people, these Legions fell under the command of the Waffen-SS. Needless to say that many of them, if not all, faced heavy sentences after the war.

Later on during the war at the end of 1943, the Freiwilligen Legion Flandern was reformed into a fully motorized Brigade, and the name changed into the 6th. SS Sturmbrigade 'Langemarck'. And this is were the StuG III comes into play: this Brigade consisted out of 10 Companies, and the 7th Company was a Sturmgeschütz Company, consisting out of 7 or 8 StuG III's.

Now, it was very hard to find any photos or info on this, but some people on the internet helped me out, sending me a chapter of a book written by ex-Eastern Front Flemish soldiers.
The StuG III's of the Langemarck first saw action in January 1944 in Ukraine. The reformed Das Reich division was fighting near Zhitomir in the form of a Kampfgruppe (KG Lammerding). They fought well but suffered many losses and were going to be swamped by the Red Army. They were going to be trapped in a cauldron or pocket, and the first task of the Langemarck was to hold of the Russians in order to prevent the Das Reich being encircled. They did so with succes, but again with many losses.
It's in this period I want to depict my StuG III. I'll be using the Dragon early G for this purpose, together with some goodies.
The StuG in question is based on the openingsphoto, which is one of very few photos of a StuG of the Langemarck. We can see the crew of SS-Untersturmführer (2nd Lieutenant) August Heyerick (the man in white winter jacket to the left).

The StuG came together nicely and painting and weathering took the most of my time (weathering is the stage I like the most since it really starts to make your model come alive). If you are familiar with Michael Rinaldi's Tank Art series of books, you have heard of the term Oil Paint Rendering. That's the technique I used. A lot of layers of weathering added by only using oils and eventually pigments at the final stages to simulate mud.

Before I go on, photos:
StuG (3).jpg
StuG (11).jpg
StuG (36).jpg
StuG (38).jpg
StuG (50).jpg
StuG (52).jpg
StuG (57).jpg
StuG (81).jpg
StuG (92).jpg
StuG (109).jpg

I'll post some photos of the figures and scene later on.

Cheers
 

Jim R

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Hi Wouter
Nice to see you and your superb Stug. Heading to be a stunning dio.
Jim
 
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Hi Jim (well, actually you will remain Jimbo for me for ever and ever :smiling5:), thanks a lot chap. Really hope I can continue this one soon again ^^

Cheers
 

Si Benson

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Hi Wouter,
Great to see you and I’m totally in love with that StuG :blow-kiss:.
Really is time you got that finished though mate!
Si
 

Jim F

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Great work Wouter that Stug is a work of art, I'll be following this one to the finish line
regards Jim
 

BigGreg

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Wouter.... DAAAAAAAAMN.... that's a weathered STUG
 
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Polux, thanks mate

Si, thanks bud, yeah I really should. Been working on it on and off

Hi Jim and Samson! Glad to have you on board chap!

Hi Greg, thanks for your enthousiasm...it's even better: it's a Belgian weathered StuG, well more or less :smiling2: The Flemings of the Langemarck probably wouldn't have appreciated the fact that I call it 'Belgian' in stead of Flemish :tongue-out3:

Hi Paul, glad you're happy with it, thanks!

Well, some more photos, of the crew this time. Actually the first time I had a go at sculpting a figure myself. The rest of the figures are slightly adjusted Alpine Miniatures ones:
I'm depicting a scene where the CO and NCO of the crew are briefed by a grenadier of Das Reich, in the background the crew are loading ammo.
One of the crew loading figures. Home made sculpt (paintwork is still W.I.P.), absolutely not perfect (he's quite chubby LOL) but he will do.
IMG_7638.jpgIMG_7511.jpg
Second one is a homemade figure well, standing on the StuGs engine compartment
IMG_7513.jpg
IMG_7508.jpg
SS-Untersturmführer August Heyerick is the StuG's commander. An adapted Alpine figure: I added a Flemish shield and Langemarck cufftitle to his sleeve
Langemarck crew (3).jpg
Langemarck crew (4).jpg
the crews NCO
Langemarck crew (5).jpg
And a Das Reich grenadier
Langemarck crew (7).jpg
There's one more figure but I can't find a photo immediately. I had a scene planned on a quite large custom made base but Roger Hurkmans suggested to use a smaller base. I'll try to find photos of the initial set up later on.

Cheers
 

BigGreg

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Well Belgian SS were also Legio Wallonie 28th Div. so Belgian-Flemish-Walons... all the same to me....:smiling::smiling::smiling::smiling::smiling:... l’m very curious to see how the diorama will look like... the Stug is already something stunning.. the figures are wonderful.... so l’m very very curious
 

rtfoe

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Hey Wouter,

Nice to see the splendid looking Stug again. The Figgies are coming along nicely. The two loaders have good interaction. Like Greg, Im also curious.

Cheers,
Richard
 

SteveH

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Got to love a Stug, Wouter,

And this is one really well presented Stug too:smiling:

Sculpting too, you really are going where most tank modellers fear to tread.

And the figures are matching the Stug for quality too

very nice work

Steve H
 
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Wow, excellent sculpting Wouter! I'd love to be able to do that.
 
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Thanks everyone, glad to read you're with me on this. Mind though, there won't be an update any time soon (working on a house for this dio but it goes slow, and it's a bit trial and error so will take a while :smiling2:

Peter, well just have a go at it! I was afraid of it too, but I plunged into the dark art of sculpting. I watched Roger Hurkmans explain how he did it a couple of years ago on a Belgian show, and Radek Pituch, Bill Horan and Tom Hugues have great Youtube videos explaining how to do it. It's defo not easy and I reckon I will never get Alpine Miniatures standard, but you can obtain something decent. So with your skills. Just try it. Would be great to see a 100% custom Peter Day figure one day! ^^

Cheers
 
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